Secrets of a Fel Heart Book 3
Beneath the Sweet Gum Tree Vixeena shivered slightly as she sat leaning against a sweet gum tree. Her skin was covered in dew from the grass she rested and on and in the early morning there was still a trace of chill in the air as she watched the night dark skies turn violet. The sky was the color of Taldarion's hair she thought as she looked at the imprint of his form in the grass before her where he had lain hours earlier. He now slept in the farmhouse entwined with a myriad of blankets. Her thoughts had kept her mind alert and sleep had failed to come. So many matters weighed upon her and dogged her heels like ravenous hounds. Vix was rather adept at feigning sleep...when her lover's breathing fell into a deep repetitive cadence she stealthily crept out of bed. Before she left to wander the grounds of the farm she tended to the fire which had died down..adding pinecones and brush to the glowing embers until the fire picked up and lent the room with an amber radiance and warmth. Things had rapidly progressed between them...once ignitited it reminded her of a brush fire on the savannahs of Barrens in its intensity. Nearly a month had passed since she had performed the soul link between them which has intertwined their conciousness for almost a week. Vixeena had known Taldarion for some time and had admired his grace, gregarious intelligence, and beauty from a distance. A violent act had drawn their fates together taking two strands of separate lives and meshed them into a tapestry of complex design. Vixeena sat thinking she began the chore of sharpening her dagger which was fashioned from a Raptor's claw...the dagger rarely ever left the hilt that rested against her thigh. Last evening she has removed it placing it in the wet vegetation. She was fairly certain that Taldarion had not noticed the signifigance of that act but it was an act of giving a level of trust she was unused to bestowing on any man. Vix sorted through the events of the last month and inadvertantly nicked herself drawing a few droplets of blood which stained her pale olive skin. In her mind she recalled the training grounds in Ashenvale on the night Faeroh Moonreign had found Taldarion hanging limply from the wall covered in his own blood like a trophy. The eminently dignified druid had howled like a wolf with a lethal wound upon seeing his son near death from his encounter with Daeloth. The demon had been returned to his former demonic strength due to a newfound alliance with the Doom Guard Sraath...it had hungered to settle several old scores. Faeroh had managed to repair the battered flesh of his child by encasing him in a luminescent cocoon which did its work as his son lay dreaming wrapped in the enchanted threads. Surprisingly the druid has entrusted part of Taldarion's care in her untested hands. He had requested that she use her abilities to control the demons which inhabited Taldarion while he remained unconcious. Vix did not exactly control the demons as a traditional warlock might. She insinuated her desires into their own motivations so seamlessly that the creature no longer could discern its desires from hers. It was a innate talent she possesed and one which could have a high price for the Eredor who had repeatedly captured, tortured,and hunted her. They had intially sought her precisely for the same gift hoping to use it on the inhabitants of the worlds they invaded finding out eventually that this very skill could be employed against them and their minions. This fact chafed at them as the Eredor thought themselves to be above the control of mortal warlocks and they were most determined to recapture her. Vixeena had marvelled at the sheer force of will Taldarion possesed to have managed the five demons bound to him. Demon hunters, she had learned from her association with the Netherbane school, had several methods of binding the demonic entities that provided the source of their enhanced abilitities. It was not uncommon for one of their ranks to go mad and end up allying with the very creatures which were their enemies if they were overcome by the ones bound to them. Tal had mastered the control of not one but five and still maintained his grip on reality. During the week Taldarion had slept in his organic shroud Vixeena had lain in a trance by his side soul linked to him and manipulating the desires and actions of the demons he housed. Part of the process involved a sharing of memories and and a revealing of self that was a byproduct of the link. Layers of both of their psyches has been peeled away like translucent bulbs freshly dug and dissected. Taldarion was a man so much more than his exterior beauty. Vix had learned much of his inner workings as he dreamt and his flesh knit. He was a complex individual with a marvelous creative intellect and a deep reserve of strength. His path was a harsh, bloody, one full of sacrifice yet he maintained balance, humor, and sensitivity. Vixeena reflected that he was a man capable of a feral intensity yet great warmth and kindess for those he cared for. Vixeena sheathed her newly sharpened dagger and frowned. She still had her doubts about the blossoming romance with the lovely hunter. He had professed his love for her and she felt so singularly unworthy of it. She had been an asassin and a hired killer in her past...hardly suitable for one so noble and full of honor. She walked back to the farmhouse unable to escape the longing to see her lover's face as he rested a fan of violet lashes resting against his elegantly sculpted face. She could not escape the thought that her innate talents had somehow coerced his new found emotions for her. Vix crawled into bed and sought his warmth..she knew she loved him and that was real as solid as the stone floor of the farmhouse. An Ordering of Affairs Vixeena stripped the sheets off her bed and replaced them with immaculately clean ones imported from Darnassus. She performed the activity numbly cleansing her mind of feeling and restoring a welcome sense of order to the chaos that had swirled in the recesses of her mind. Vix methodically cleansed her home in Ironforge to its former sterility pleased with the results. Reaching a decision..even a small one was liberating. She had decided that Taldarion had indeed been affected by her innate talents of charm while they were in prolonged mental contact during the soul link. There could be nothing else that could explain his behavior..how things had progressed so rapidly between them like a summer brush fire in Kalimdor. She had seen it happen many times each time hoping for a different result. But the defintion of insanity she thought, is repeating the same behavior hoping for a different result. Vixeena could not help what she was. She had the same talent and curse that her mother had been similarly afflicted and "blessed" with. An ability to insinuate ones desires into the minds of others with repeated exposure. This so called gift had made Vix's mother a very sucessful "Lady of the Evening" whose clients numbered among the wealthy and elite of the seaport city she ran her business in. It was the same skill that had lead to her mother's death and had forever denied her love of a normal variety. Vix had woke up this morning in a cold , icy, sweat. She had wakened from the same dream that had haunted her for years. It was always the same images..finding her mother's limp body with an intricately embroidered belt still tightened around her throat the vivid crimson welts raised on her neck. There would be no police investigation for a whore...even a high class one, Vixeena had known with surety at the time. The other prostitutes had seen the retreated back of Lord Veneren a man so formerly obssessed by her mother that he had sent his henchmen to eliminate her mother's regular clients. The price of his passion was taking the life of her mother...for he was unable to break the obsession and had no desire to. Sinara, her mother had let it slip that she loved Vixeena's father and that the Lord's involvement with her was purely professional. Veneran had snapped and strangled Sinara weeping angry tears as he fled the scene. In his lofty position he was above the law and immune to any punishment others would have faced for such a crime. Vixeena's mother's death was a wound that never truly healed...it bled darkly from time to time as the stresses in her life opened the newly healed scabs. She had been very close to her lovely, Mother who was a wise and pragmatic woman. She was the only person that Vix had ever known for certain loved her wholly as her Mother was immune to the charm abilitities that both possesed. Vix finished setting her house in order and dropped several clean and immaculately tailored gowns into her satchel along with an assortment of cosmetics and fine soaps. It was best to stick to simple pleasures..she thought..for the normal ones such as love and family would forever be out of her reach and in all truth she was accustomed to her solitary path..it was like a fox's den a familiar and safe harbor. She had decided to venture again to the Order of Tirisfal's library in the ruins near the Monestary. She would keep her word to Faeroh Moonreign to look after his son for she would research using crystals to stabilize the demons that dwellled within Taldarion. Being away from Taldarion for the course of several days would be a truly loving act she thought as she surveyed the rigid order of her dwelling. That should be enough time for the charm to wear off if that is what his feelings originated from. She had seen this many times..once the contact was severed for even a few days..the formerly loving men had a change of heart. She knew now this is what had happened to Velik. He had been away on training and apparently it had been long enough...what Vixeena had thought sincere affection was merely her unconcious enchantments on his mind. She would survive this as she always had..returning to her pragmatic and icy state of mind. She would assist Taldarion from afar for she had no doubt when she returned her would no longer harbor such emotions. Vix summoned Feldspar from the plains of Desolace and gracefully mounted his sleek ebon flanks..she thought she felt tears on her face but she ignored the sensation lifting her chin and staring ahead barely noticing her surroundings as she rode on... A Kind of Homecoming Vixeena dismounted from Feldspar and set to removing the tome laden packs from her mount. Her time spent in the ruins of the Order Of Tirisfal's library had done much to calm her chaotic and tumultuous spirit. Her clothes still exuded the scent of damp earth for the dwarves had left open the excavation from her last expedition so she could readily access the book shelves. Vix dismissed her steed. She could see the hunger in his eyes..longing to run swift on the plains of his home. Vix herself had been that hungry to find the answers she sought and she had been rewarded so well with her research that the pain she was experiencing over Taldarion was now a dull ache in the recesses of her mind. She had stumbled across a tome which appeared to be the grimoire of a warlock that had been held captive by the order...it detailed his experiments with configuring crystals to house demonic essences for the extraction of their powers. Much of the methodolgy described were things Vix had uncovered independently..the tome, however; detailed types of crystals and rituals used to stabilize the entities. It looked as if the warlock had been executed before his experiments were completed as his last entry spoke of his impending demise. The Order from Vix what had gathered had eliminated this man for it was clear this man was interested in acquiring human souls...multitudes of them to house in his crystals...not simply harnessing the soul in a shard for a spell or summoning..but amassing thousands of souls embedded in gem matrixes. He mentioned that he believed that cities could be powered with the souls of living humans, trolls orcs, taurens and elves. Vix shivered at the thought of towering cystalline cities pulsing with the essences of the souls of the living. At least this tome could effect something positive now. She was certain that she could continue this man's research and aid Taldarion and perhaps any who chose to be bound to demons. Vixeena lugged the heavy packs inside her home. She smelled a faint musk as she set the packs down. She saw a vase on the nightable..the scarlett blossom next to the table. "Taldarion"..Vix breathed deeply and shook her head. She picked up the note and read it her hands fluttering and her eyes soft. Vix's mind raced. It could not be true..he just couldn't be resistent to her innate talents. Perhaps Kaldorei just took longer to come out of the enchantment, Vixeena thought. But then again what if he had been immune all along? She wrapped her arms around herself her eyes wide..that in itself was a frightening thought. Yes she loved him but such a thing had never before returned in sincerity..the prospect delighted and frightened her simultaneously. Vix mused to herself that opening up to him would be more challenge than finding the way to stabilize the demons that dwelled within him... Category:Stories Category:Vixeena